When The Stars Came To The Padang - A Photo Blog

When The Stars Came To The Padang - A Photo Blog - By Reynold Godwin Pereira

Reynold Pereira finds a treasure of photos of football legends from the 70's and 80's.

 
While going through some of my old black and white negatives and contact prints, I came across some sets of black and white prints that I had taken back in 1996. 

I normally only made contact prints of my photos and unfortunately, I had overexposed most of the photos from this roll so the contact print showed many photos which looked 'washed out'. (These were the days before digital photos so you only had one shot to get it right!) 

I was quite disappointed and these prints fell into the archives folders only to gather dust in the cupboards.

But recently, I purchased a negative converter so that I could scan all my old negatives into digital format. and now with technology, I was able to 'treat' some of my old negatives and restore them to their former glory!!

I had completed a black and white photography course conducted of the Photographic Society of Singapore (PSS) in 1995. And after the course, I was keen to try out some new techniques that I had learnt. 

On this occasion, I decided to head out to the Padang when I heard that there was a game between a European All-Star lineup versus a Singapore team made up of ex-National players. 

It's funny but holding an SLR camera together with a bag of accessories somehow game you a bit of clout and I was able to mingle with the players before and after the match to get them to pose for photos. 

It also gave me an opportunity to speak to some of them whom prior to that, I only was able to see them on TV!  

Looking back, I'm glad that I did all those photo shoots and looking back at these photos, it reminds me that the memories that are stored in our minds may eventually fade away but photos act as a time stamp of a particular day in our life! 

Enjoy these memories!

The Singapore Ex-National team pose with the European All-Star team before the match at the Padang. The Singapore team consisted of players like Fandi Ahmad, Quah Kim Song, Malik Awab, Robert Sim, Jai Prakash and Sundramoorthy among others.

The European All-Star team. Among the players in the team were Alan Ball, Ossie Ardiles, Alex Stepney, Liam Brady, Rene Van Der Kerkoff, Alan Kennedy, Russell Osman, Tony Woodcock and Gordon Strachan. 

Two legends at the match: Fandi Ahmad, Singapore's football legend and the late George Suppiah who refereed several matches at the 1974 World Cup.

Alex Stepney who played goalkeeper for Manchester United when they won the European Cup in 1968.

The late Alan Ball who was a World Cup winner with England in the 1966 World Cup.

Russell Osman who played for Ipswich Town and England. He was also featured in the film, Escape To Victory together with Ossie Ardiles.

Malek Awab, the diminutive but very creative Singapore midfielder in the 80's.

Jai Prakash who was one of Singapore's 'hard men' in defence in the 80's

Tony Woodcock kicking off with another player (not sure who he is!) Woodcock was in the Nottingham Forest team that won the European Cup in 1979.

Liam Brady. Best remembered for his days with Arsenal and for his accurate pass that led to Alan Sunderland scoring the winning goal in the exciting 1979 FA Cup Final.

Singapore legend Fandi Ahmad posing with Osvaldo Ardiles who played for Argentina when they won the World Cup in 1978 and later played for Spurs in the English league.

Gordon Strachan who is the current manager of Scotland

Robert Sim, Singapore's tough left back who is best remembered for the photo of him shedding tears when Singapore lost to South Vietnam in the semi-final of the 1973 SEAP Games.

Fandi Ahmad posing with Gordon Strachan

Malek Awab and V. Sundramoorthy who currently the head coach of the Singapore National team.

Tommy Docherty (middle) who was the coach of Manchester United when they won the FA Cup in 1977.

Fandi Ahmad, the gentleman that he is, signing autographs for some kids after the match.

Malek Awab and Fandi Ahmad, two stars of the Singapore National team in the 70's and 80's.

Mah Bow Tan, former Minister of Singapore being introduced to the Singapore team before the match.

Fandi Ahmad after the match

Quah Kim Song (right) Singapore's Golden Boy from the 70's

Masuk Dalam! - Growing up with the SBS Bus

Reynold Pereira reflects on the role that the SBS bus has played in his life. (All photos courtesy of PICAS unless otherwise indicated)

 

It was once again that time of the year when I would go through my growing kid’s toys and remove those that he no longer plays with. In the midst of rummaging through his boxes of toys, I came across this little miniature diecast bus that I had bought for my older son in 2002, a few years after we had left Singapore.

It was an SBS Bus. While holding the bus, a wave of memories suddenly came flashing by. I then realised that the SBS (and later the CSS, TIBS) bus have in fact been a part of my life in Singapore.

Diecast SBS Bus from 2002 (that belonged to my kid)

Yes, for some of us who take the bus every day, it is just a reminder of that dreaded trip to the office or that constant fear of getting caught in a traffic jam. For me, after some reflection, I realised that the SBS bus brought back memories of chapters in my life. I can still recall many incidents sitting in a bus that were going along certain routes.

My Dad did on occasions mention about the STC (Singapore Traction Company) buses but as I had never rode on one, I can only speak about the SBS buses and the ones that came after it.

STC Bus from the 1960's

My earliest recollections of the SBS was taking the bus to go to the Diamond Theatre in North Bridge Road to watch either Tamil or Hindi movies with my family. Most of the shows were in the evening. 

On most occasions I could not recall the trip home to Kembangan where I lived as I was already fast asleep and was always in the arms of my mother on the walk from the bus stop to my home.

Diamond Theatre

All the buses at that time had a driver and a bus conductor who issued tickets when you paid your fare. Of course the aim was to have as many passengers as possible in the bus. 

It was the responsibility of the conductor to ensure that the bus was filled to the brim so it was common to hear the conductor shouting, 'Masuk dalam' ('Go in' in Malay) or 'Gia jeep' ('Go in' in Hokkien).

Bus conductor in an SBS Bus during the 1970's

As a kid, I remember that our bus fare was a flat rate of 10 cents. For adults, the fares ranged from 10 cents to 60 cents depending on the number of bus stops. 

I guess every adult had to remember the number of stops before he alights. Good training of the memory!

Bus tickets during the 1970's

Bus Fares

At the age of eight, I took my first solo road trip on a bus. I can’t recall what bus I took . (In the East Coast area, the bus numbers started from 1 to around 45). 

But I reckoned that if I took a bus from point A to B and then took the same bus number at point B in the opposite direction, I would reach point A again. 

Fortunately for me, this assumption worked to my favour!! Hope that Mum and Dad will not be reading this because I would certainly be in for a hiding as I had never told them around this solo bus ride so early in my life!!

SBS Bus from the 1970's

I also recall at on occasions, the bus driver would stop in front of a 'prata' shop close to my home (close to the present site of the present Kembangan MRT Station) and go in to collect his ‘takeaway prata’  while the other passengers patiently remained in the bus. 

For everyone in the bus, there was nothing extraordinary about this. Nowadays, even a one minute delay would result in unmentionable remarks from passengers!

Kembangan MRT Station (My childhood home was demolished to make way for this station)

I have to confess that I did avoid paying my fare on several occasions, especially when the bus was crowded. It was sometimes difficult for the bus conductor to collect fares especially when the bus was overcrowded.

It was also common to find graffiti at the back of the seats back then since the back was usually made of wood. And we also did try our hand in creating works of art by scratching on the backs of the seats using coins!

As a kid, nothing beats going to the beach. For us, that meant taking a one hour bus ride on bus number 1 or 2 from Kembangan all the way to Changi Point. 

For my Mum, the day would have started early as she had to prepare her delicious mutton curry (which she brought along in tiffin carriers) that we would all be whopping away with soft bread in between our swims at the beach. 

Changi Point seemed to us to be in another world. There was always that ‘holiday air’ surrounding the area.

The ride home from Changi Point was always a blur as we were asleep for most of the journey home.

Bus terminus at Changi Point during the 1960's

                    
Another exciting adventure was visiting my cousins who lived in Upper Bukit Timah Road (close to the old stone quarries). Its funny but I can still recall the name of the road, 'Chia Eng Say Road'!! 

The trip there entailed taking a bus to Ophir Road and then boarding the 170 bus which was headed towards Johor Baru. 

It was easy to know where to alight as the bus stop was just after second black truss bridge that spanned across Upper Bukit Timah Road.

The black truss bridge today. (Glad to hear that they are going to preserve it)

My first long solo trips were made when I was ten and had joined the World Star Football Club in 1974. The trainings were held at the football field in Farrer Park. 

For many, Farrer Park was the 'Mecca of football' for youth soccer and it was a dream for me to be able to play there on a regular basis. And it was also not uncommon to see many football legends training there.

Farrer Park Field (Here we have Fandi Ahmad in the middle and Dollah Kassim to his right)

To get to Farrer Park, I had to take a bus from my place to Crawford Street and then change to bus 163 (or was it 160??). I remember having to walk by the old Singapore Sports House in Rutland Road to get to the Farrer Park field. 

As I am quite interested in sports history I was saddened to hear that the building was razed to the ground in 1985 and many of the sports associations lost a substantial amount of historic records.

Another interesting incident I remember was the difficulty of the old bus number 20 in trying to climb up the steep slope at opera Estate. I remember once when the bus attempted to climb the slope several times without success.  

Eventually, all the passengers were asked to get off the bus and fortunately the bus made it after that to the top of the slope and we all re-boarded the bus!

The type of bus which was similar to the one used for bus number 20 in the 1970's

Moving to Marine Parade at the end of 1975 meant that I had to take the bus to get to St. Stephen's School, my primary school every day in 1976. 

That meant that I had to apply for a concessionary bus pass. It was a big thrill for me being able to take the bus every day. Suddenly you felt grown-up.

One of the bus passes that I had

An exciting new development took place in 1977 when the SBS introduced their first double decker buses. It was a big thrill for us and of course, the seat of choice was the two front seats on the upper level. 

It was not easy to get those seats so a couple of times, we decide to board the bus at the old terminal at Chai Chee just to have the pleasure of seating on those much sought after seats.

The first SBS Double Decker buses that were introduced in 1977

Overcrowding has always been an issue so it was a brief respite when the City Shuttle Service (CSS) buses were introduced in the mid 70's. 

Though these buses were just as crowded, they tended to go faster, since they operated a non-stop service from the National Stadium to downtown.

The CSS bus in 1975

Doing my Officer Cadet training meant that I had to take the bus from the Marine Drive in the east coast to SAFTI military barracks which was in the west coast. 

It was indeed an extremely long journey considering that this was before the days of the expressways. 

I was glad that I had my trusted Sony Walkman to keep me company during these long journeys.

My Sony Walkman looked something like this (Photo courtesy of Sony)

The journeys became even longer when I was posted to Sungei Gedong camp off Lim Chu Kang Road. To get there I had to take the bus 172. As we only needed to book in by 2359hrs, I used to catch the last bus. 

I was always happy when there were other passengers in the bus since the bus journey took us past a couple of cemeteries!! And somehow we tended to avoid looking out of the windows for fear of seeing figures dressed in white!!

The introduction of the MRT system in the mid 80's meant I took the bus less and less, as it was usually faster to travel by the MRT. But I will never forget those experiences that I had riding on an SBS bus.

Whenever we come back to Singapore, I try to make it a point to take the SBS bus together with my kids though I must confess that the experience is somewhat different nowadays!!

Growing Up During 90s' TV When James Lye And Gurmit Were Still Under One Roof

Our latest article features a journey back to Singapore TV in the 90's. This article is written by one of our newer Nostalgic Singapore members, David BK Tan. 

Fellow Singaporeans, do you realise the above title contains two of Singapore's more popular drama series - "Growing up" and "Under One Roof"? No? No worries, let me walk you down the TV memory lane.

English drama started its run in 1994. The first series was "Masters of the Sea" but unfortunately the first ship to foray into the English drama sea sank. It was criticised for the inaccurate wardrobe and unimaginative lines such as  “I will crush you, like a cockroach”.  Perhaps one of the reasons could be the unfamiliarity of the local environment as the producers and story writers were Americans (source).   

But one trivia arising out of this flop was the debut of Bryan Wong, who crossed over to Channel 8 thereafter to seek better opportunities. Now he is back to Channel 5 hosting programmes, thus epitomises the saying "If at first you don't succeed, try, try again".

The next home-made series fared better. "Under One Roof" centred around a family's life in an HDB flat, spanned seven seasons from 1995 to 2003 with 125 episodes.  It was truly a multi-racial cast, and some of the names in the series still sound familiar - Tan Ah Teck (Moses Lim). Ronnie (Nicholas Lee) , Rosnah (Norleena Salim) etc.  Some of you might still remember the tagline from Tan Ah Teck -“Long before your time, in the southern province of China…”.

 

1995 also saw the debut of the police drama "Triple Nine".  The first season starred James Lye, Wong Li Lin and Lim Yu Beng.  It was quite a success with a run of 4 seasons from 1995 to 1999.  The success of this series also made it possible to do the cross-over to Channel 8, with the dialogue being dubbed into Mandarin.

"Growing Up" was the first successful family drama in Singapore's TV history. Helmed by the veteran actor Lim Kay Tong and the up-and-coming starlets Andrew Seow, Steven Lim, Irin Gan, and Jamie Yeo; the series depicted the growing-up years of these four under their disciplinarian father (Lim KT).  Lim KT's excellent portrayal of the role of family patriarch led him to be named by the Straits Times as one of the top ten dads on TV in 2013.  The series spent six seasons on local TV screen from 1996 to 2001 with 113 episodes.

The quintessential local drama must be "Phua Chu Kang Pte Ltd" in 1997.  Starring the larger-than-life Gurmit Singh and flanked by his able co-stars such as Irene Ang, Pierre Png, Tan Kheng Hua etc; the show used a dose of Singlish and exaggerated characterisation to make it a hit.  It also churned out the best tagline in local TV so far "Best in Singapore, JB, and some say Batam.” which PCK aka Gurmit always reminded the viewers.

In fact, the name of Phua Chu Kang is already a funny name. Chu Kang (厝港) is a familiar area name in Singapore (Lim Chu Kang, Chua Chu Kang) and it means house along the river in Teochew dialect. Phua (破) means broken, so Phua Chu Kang literally means a broken house along the river. As PCK is a building contractor, doesn't it sound funny in a contradicting manner? Thumbs up for the creativity juice of the scriptwriters.

No wonder PCK is MediaCorp’s longest running sitcom, spanning eight seasons from 1997 to 2007 with 167 episodes. 

If anything, sci-fi is clearly not one of the strengths of Singapore television. The superhero drama "VR Man" aired in 1998, could only save itself one season despite having James Lye as the lead actor. Not even the charismatic super powers of James Lye could rescue it. By the way, VR stands for Virtual Reality, not Very Rotten!!

The next series was actually not in my memory bank and I only came across it whilst doing a research on this article. Debuting in 1999, "Spin" was the first English teen drama which revolved around the lives of a group of polytechnic students.  The cast included Madaline Tan, Elaine Cheah, Rodney Oliverio and Melody Chen. It only spun for 17 episodes. 

Finally we have come to the conclusion of my article here. We certainly had a good dose of TV entertainment during the 90s, and with Singapore celebrating its golden jubilee of 50 years of independence in 2015, here's wishing more good TV in the next 50 years to come!

About the writer:

After falling in love with IT for about 12 years, David BK Tan decided to part amicably with her and woo Mr Entrepreneurship and Ms Mandarin thereafter. He is a web entrepreneur, founded a wine cooler website (www.dunavoxasia.com) and concurrently teaching foreigners Mandarin. You can read his posts on China/Mandarin at https://www.facebook.com/MrChinaBoleh.